Trinity has been sold to someone who has dreams of distant shores.

Well, Trinity has not left her slip since May 31, 2009. But we have traveled much by car, our 1985 Mercedes diesel which almost has 300,000 miles on the origonal clutch. But with 40-MPG we are seeing some of the U.S.

Our plan is to head to the Chesapeake in the spring. We enjoyed the Bahamas, but it is too cool there to spend winters & next time we cruise through we hope it is in the spring.

Trinity is up for sale as the old folks need a little smaller vessel. If anyone is interested in a beautiful restored Allied Princess she is ready to cruise anywhere. She is listed on Yacht World.

I guess everyone is wondering what happened to our blog entries. Some probably don't care, but we arrived back in the States and then just stopped adding entries. We have been keeping quite busy working on remodeling our home so we can put it up for sale. It has become too much upkeep and much larger than we need. After spending a year living on a 36 foot sailboat, our house seems enormous. So we are busy painting walls after repairing all the dings and holes from 24 years of use and redoing our flooring. And just like when we refurbished our sailboat, we do as much of the work ourselves as possible. But as we go along our remodeling project we are always finding flaws from the builders that aren't good enough for us so we ending up doing more work than originally planned. We aren't perfectionist but we do believe it should be built with as good a quality as a sailboat. So what took us 3 ½ years to do to our boat, we are trying to do in 4 months and hoping that the housing market improves by the time we have it ready to put on the market.
Our final trip up to New Bern, North Carolina from West Palm Beach, Fl. was the best sail we have had on Trinity. We left West Palm Beach on Sunday, May24th with rain storms, lightning and thunder all around us. We traveled as far north as we could on the Western edge of the Gulf Stream and made great progress with the GPS reading 8 to 10 knots. We actually sailed most of the way, using the engine only to get in and out of inlets along the way and to our final destination. We had a small problem with the engine so we wanted to make sure it ran when we really needed it. Most of our traveling to this point had been with just motor or motor sailing. When we left the Gulf Stream our progress slowed a bit but we made 600 + miles in just 5 days off shore. I really don't care for off shore cruising but John loves it. And our crew, Will and Betsy had an enjoyable trip. This was a totally new experience for them and one that they would love to do again. We had a couple of rain squalls along the way that seemed to always occur when Betsy and I were on watch One of the storms was a little more than a squall. We were on the edge of a tropical storm that came across the Carolina's when we were working our way to the Beaufort inlet, but it went out to sea before it really materialized into anything. The winds came off our quarter and were 30+ miles per hour so it was a fast but comfortable sail. We had a handkerchief of a jib up and it moved us along quite well and the best part was that it ended quickly. However, my foul weather gear leaks like a sieve. I was soaked for four hours until my watch ended. And it was also in the middle of the night. The storm hit about 11pm and we came into Beaufort Inlet at daybreak. We arrived at our marina and new home port at about 4 pm on Saturday May 30th. We didn't stay very long at the marina before heading back to Georgia the next morning. Our crew had to be back to work the next morning. They used up most of their vacation waiting out the weather in Florida, fishing & hanging out with some of John's family living in the area.
Shortly after arriving back in Georgia we took a trip up north to visit our son and daughter-in-law in northern Minnesota. We had plans to take a ride on an oar ship that would have taken us through Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to Chicago and back but it was cancelled because an unauthorized passenger had been injured on one of the ships a few weeks before we arrived. Now a special permit is required for all passengers not employed by the company. We didn't have time to get the permit before our scheduled cruise. But maybe we will get another chance sometime in the future. And the most important part of the trip was to visit with our son and daughter-in-law and four granddogs. On our way to Minnesota we made a side trip to visit a cousin in Wisconsin where we attended her daughter's baptism. She is a cutie and our son and his wife are her Godparents. Even though it was a long drive up there and back, we had an enjoyable trip that was worth every minute we were able to spend with our family. However, the weather was cooler than normal and we were prepared for warmer temperatures. All in all we are enjoying a wonderful summer and hope to be back on the water soon.

We are sitting here in the marina in Florida waiting for a weather window to travel north. There is a low that is upon us that developed in the Bahamas along with a cold front that came down from the north and the winds are blowing, blowing, blowing. We had rain and thunderstorms for the past 3 days and along with strong winds. We were all up at 4 am a couple of nights ago when gale force winds came through causing havoc with the boat bumping the dock and the halyards slapping. Once we got everything secured things were good the rest of the night. We are on the internet several times a day checking out the weather forecast. Tomorrow (Saturday) is looking real good. We are planning to head out the inlet around 0900 and are praying for a smooth ride up the coast. Our crew is here and we are ready to go. Will and Betsy love to fish so they have been keeping themselves busy catching dinner. We had a delicious fish dinner last night and they are out there right now trying to get tonight's meal. We have friends who are still in the Bahamas trying to get north also. We had hoped to hook up with them here on the coast but the weather has prevented that. Maybe we will see them along the way.
While we were waiting for the crew to arrive we had great weather. The temperatures were in the high 80's and the winds were just right. We actually thought that the cold fronts were over for the season and that summer weather was finally here. NOT!. We had the trip all planned out and we should be off shore right now having this nice ride. But the weather decided to make a change. It has felt like we were in a mini hurricane with all the wind and rain squalls that have continued to pass through. But right now we actually have blue skies.
The weather for tomorrow looks like winds out of the southeast, which is perfect with 3 to 4 foot seas, which is also OK . The winds should be around 15 to 20 knots starting out and diminishing as the day goes on. Similar weather should continue all the way up the coast. We plan to travel just on the western edge of the Gulf Stream to get a couple of knots extra boost. We are hoping to be in North Carolina in four days. This of course will be our last communication until we reach land again. We are all excited to be underway and to have great weather.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all.
The picture was taken at the beach at Singer Island, Fl. looking at the sea buoy off the Palm Beach inlet.

We have been having a good time hanging out here in Florida. Some good friends of ours arrived Saturday night to spend some time with us. We rented a car and drove to Ft. Lauderdale to pick them up. They had gotten some really inexpensive airline tickets to come and visit us. They flew on Allegiant airlines for $30.00 each one way.
While taking a walk along the seawall close to the marina we found the JAR. The mysterious jar kept us entertained for a whole day. We found this jar on a beach close to the marina. It was just lying in the sand at low tide. Our first thought was to throw it in the trash but then our curiosity took over. The jar was clear and the lid was sealed with heavy tape that was starting to come loose from being in the water. Inside we could see something wrapped in cloth and tied with twine and rubber bands. We procrastinated about the contents for hours after carrying it back to the boat. We had all kinds of thoughts running through our brains. It obviously was something of value to someone because of the way it was secured. A few days earlier there was a boat carrying 35 Haitians that capsized off shore and several people drowned and several were lost. A few were rescued so we surmised that it was something they had brought with them. We set it on the boat and went about our business for the day, deciding to wait until after dark to open it just in case it was something really illegal or weird. We had dinner with John's niece and sister that evening so we decided to open it after when we returned. The lid came off quite easily but the contents had an odor that smelled like diesel or oil. It was then dark and we didn't we did not want the smell on the boat so we set it on the dock and decided to wait until morning and daylight.
Bright and early the next morning the package was opened and the contents were revealed. It was really a disappointment after all of the theories and such that we had come up with. So here is the solution. There was a kitchen towel inside the jar bound in twine and rubber bands. Inside the towel were several red hot peppers, some small green peppers cut in half and crystals of rock salt. There were also a couple of candles wrapped up with this stuff. Our assumption is that these spices were for seasoning fish at sea and they were put in this jar to stay dry. They came into this beach with the tide because this is the direction the tide flows from the inlet which is a short distance from our marina. They either got into the bilge or somehow exposed to salt water and fuel or oil which caused the odor. We were hoping for something of more value but it did make the day more interesting. We discarded the contents and the jar after our discovery was complete.
We don't know when we will be leaving this area as there is some nasty weather offshore for the next couple of days. There are high seas and strong winds along our path to North Carolina associated with another cold front that is passing through and a low pressure area over the Bahamas. But we are having a good time with our friends and our family. Besides we aren't supposed to be in a hurry because we are cruising.

Here we are back in the USA and experiencing some culture shock. We've rented a slip in the Lake Park Marina for a month to get ourselves adjusted to the real world again and decide what we're going to do next. When we were here in the fall we stayed in the Riviera Beach Marina which was a real nasty place. But at the time we didn't know that this marina accepted transient boats. This is actually where we kept our boat 25 years ago when we lived in this area. The marina has been remodeled in the past few years with better facilities, more dockage and accepts transient boaters. It is city owned and operated with a full time dock master and a security guard who walks the premises at night. It is located in a safer part of town with a grocery store and eating establishments within easy walking distance. We are putting in lots of foot miles getting around the area. Which we really needed after traveling on the boat for a couple of days nonstop.
Since arriving we have also made use of the local transit system. That is definitely something new and different. Our first ride on the bus systems was to the Customs office. We called Customs when we were coming in the inlet and they gave us a clearance number and then told us we had 24 hours to check in to the office at the Port of Palm Beach Customs office. So after we got settled in our slip we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant for breakfast and the waitress told us about the bus system. We thought about calling a taxi but the bus stop was right outside the restaurant parking lot. We even thought about walking but you have to go through a pretty shady area to get to the Port. So we jumped on the bus and asked the driver where we needed to get off but he really didn't want to help us. I guess he wasn't having a very good day. We are familiar with several of the main roads around here because of living here 25 years ago.
It took all of 5 minutes to clear through customs and be on our way. There were a couple of other boaters there also who had just crossed back into the US even though we didn't see any other boats all night long. We really thought that it was going to be much more difficult to clear than it was. I guess our little transponder sticker we have on the boat makes it much easier. They didn't ask us anything about what we had on the boat that we brought or bought in the Bahamas. Of course that transponder gives them our exact location at all times so they know exactly where we have been and when. That is big brother keeping an eye on us. But then they also know where our last position is if we have any problems.
Since Tuesday we have had a couple other longer trips on the bus system. There are some really interesting characters who ride the bus. I'm glad I don't have to do it all the time. We look a little out of place. John's sister and niece live in Lake Worth which is a good hour bus ride south. So we have gone down there twice so far and we're going to take another ride down there today. They usually drive us back here.
The weather is quite warm here. There is a nice breeze that blows off the ocean which helps and our boat is facing that direction in this slip. But it still gets really warm during the day with the sun beating straight down on us. We miss the cooler breezes we were having in the Bahamas and the nice clean water where we could cool off most anytime. The water is pretty nasty here in the marina. But we are glad to be back in the US especially for the prices. However the people aren't as friendly and helpful.
Mother's Day
A quiet morning in the marina, guess the fishermen are taking mom out for breakfast. We spent yesterday afternoon with friends, Bert & Elaine, who we've known over 30-years. They picked us up & after spending hours relaxing at their home, drove us back to the marina again. We really enjoyed the visit & it is good to see friends. Bert was the captain on the 92' sailboat Denny & I crewed to Spain aboard a couple of years ago. He has captained boats since graduating from college, but has now semi-retired. Elaine is a Psychologist although you would never guess. Our sons were best friends until we moved to Atlanta in 1985, now there son, Sander, is living in Australia where he is a surfer/student. Their daughter is living in New Zealand and works in the marine field.
Being able to see my sister, niece & grand niece has been a wonderful opportunity. My sister will be 84 in June and still works part time. We wanted to spend more time exploring islands, but caught a great weather window & scooted across the Gulf Stream. Our friends, Will & Betsy were going to fly to the Bahamas & sail north with us, but the cost of getting from Florida to Marsh Harbour was way too expensive for a couple of days in the islands. So it seems to be working out great this way & we can ride the stream north when we are ready to head back to N.Carolina.